Comment

Comment by littleasy on July 12, 2012 at 11:27am

Depth is the major impediment as far as I'm concerned.  The highest resistivities seem to be in this area and may be a prime target in time.  The Major well was up dip of the Tusc sands but down dip of the shelf.  This area and points North of the Major well would be in the highest resistivity zone.  As far as the AC in the Major well, was the well vertical or horizontal.  If vertical, they probably just missed the fractures.

Comment by Oilman28 on July 12, 2012 at 11:00am

Little Easy,

You have to remember that even though Point Coupee is considered in the high resistivity area, the TMS is located at 16,000-17,000 feet when you get south of the Edwards Shelf. They are having a hard enough time drilling the wells at 11,000 feet at this point. I would venture to guess that at those depths you would be looking at a $20M well if nothing goes wrong, and you would more than likely be in the gas window of the TMS at that depth which is obviously not of interest at this time.

Comment by William C. Morrison on July 12, 2012 at 10:54am

Passing through a formation is not the same as "drilling the formation" for production.  And yes, to get to the Tuscaloosa Trend one has to pass through the Tucaloosa Marine Shale.

I have no idea why it is all Austin Chalk in Pointe Coupee and TMS in the Felicianas.  Our place is on the Mississippi directly across the river from West Feliciana, yet the leases in West Feliciana are all TMS and our side, the South side of the river (it generally flows west to east in that region) are all Austin Chalk.  There are those that say the line generally runs along those properties, the line being the Edwards Shelf.  But no one knows exactly where the demarcation is for the Edwards Shelf.  I am sure 3D siesmic studies shows up a lot of things we do not know about or understand.  It could be that the Austin Chalk thins out above the Edwards Shelf and thickens below the shelf.  And AC has got to be easier to drill horizontally through chalk than shale.

It was said the down dip was the Alma Plantation well, False River Field.  Generally Included was Moore Sams (all the Jumonville wells that are no longer producing).  Yet ort place had at one time a few acres in production in the Moore Sams Field.  I have no idea how the Morganza Field plays into the mix but it abuts Moore Sams to the west.  There are wells still producting in both Morganza and Moore Sams Fields.  Of course the big bonanaza is Judge Digby Field that has been producing since the 1980s and was at one time the top gas producer on shore in Louisiana.  It has declined but yet remains in the top 10 gas producers in on shore Louisiana.

I'm guessing that one can describe Judge Digby as being in the down dip.  I do not know where Moore Sams or Morganza fits for sure but I suspect they too are down dips from the Edwards Shelf.  LaCour #43 is an AC well.  The well on or near the New Roads airport was a redrilled as an horizontal well that produced some oil but was not a big success.  And there was a well drilled on the Major's holdings between Hospital Road and I believe Major Parkway in New Roads (generally behind Walmart).  It was a dry hole in the Tuscaloosa Trend and was redrilled for Austin Chalk and was yet dry again.

Comment by littleasy on July 12, 2012 at 9:37am

Speaking strictly about geology, why would someone not drill the TMS high resistivity section in Pointe Coupee, for instance?  This would be down dip of the shelf, but up dip of the Tusc Sands that were drilled for gas in the 70's-80's.

Comment by Steve on July 12, 2012 at 9:07am

If Anadarko drilled the Tuscaloosa Sands then they should have passed through the TMS on the way. I agree with Mark that they should have some data on the Shale formation unless they drilled too far south. IMO

Comment by Steve on July 12, 2012 at 9:03am

You are correct about the Tuscaloosa (Trend/Sands) wells being all vertical . I am talking about the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in that area which is a different formation and which would have long horizontal laterals just like the Chalk wells. The only difference I know of would be the fracking. The Chalk wells are not usually fracked where the TMS wells are all fracked. It would not be a big leap for Anadarko to drill to the TMS and have their horizontal leg fracked - esp. since they hire out Halliburton or Bayou Well Services or someone else to do the fracking for them. Anadarko has plenty of money and expertise but it appears they were willing to try to get something for nothing by taking short cuts on their Chalk wells. More often than not you get what you pay for. Joe Aldridge may be correct in his assessment of their " bullheaded hot dog Texan approach". Hopefully they learned something.

Comment by William C. Morrison on July 12, 2012 at 8:39am

Mark, the drilling into the Tuscaloosa is a different kind of cat than drilling into the Austin Chalk.  Most of the Tuscaloosa Trend wells were all vertical while the Austin Chalk wells have long horizontal laterals into the chalk zone.  It is a totally different process.  And clearly Anadarko is suffering from ignorance.

Comment by Mark P on July 11, 2012 at 6:29pm

Anadarko was a major player in the Tuscaloosa play in this area back in 80's. They should have a pretty good data set on logs, mudlogs, cuttings and maybe even core 

Comment by Steve on July 11, 2012 at 6:26pm

 I wonder why Anadarko never showed any interested in the TMS ?

Halcon appears to be leasing and ready to experiment in the TMS on that side of the River. Could they team up with Anadarko or Pryme or Indigo to drill the TMS - these have large lease holdings in parts of the Chalk/TMS. Anadarko even has leases above St. Francisville on the west side of the River.

Comment by Joe Aldridge on July 11, 2012 at 4:57pm

Steve and Chip,

I don't look for any of the past players to do any more in the trend. Pryme is actively looking for a farm out partner and so is Indigo. Of all of the companies Anadarko should have had the best engineering and knowledge of the Chalk. They obviously did not and can't even learn from their mistakes. In my estimation Anadarko has spent over 100 million in the trend and has little to nothing to show for it. They are just a bunch of "bull headed hot dog Texans" that came in here and were going to teach us something. It would be my hope that they would put their acreage up for farm out also and hopefully someone with the right techniques in drilling, completion and stimulation will start drilling wells that show the true capacity and capability of the Chalk. 

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